BLOG DESCRIPTION:
Offering daily news and analysis from the Evergreen State and beyond.
The Advocate is NPI's unique perspective on world, national, and local
politics.

That's the description at Amazon. At the blog
itself: Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world,
national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the
Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate.

MY REVIEW:
Since I'm a Republican and not a Liberal, obviously I"m diametrically
opposed to much of the material on display here. Also, I don't live in
Washington state so I don't recognize a lot of the references. However,
if you're a Liberal or a Washington Statonian, you'll probably find this
blog of great interest.

Sample post:

Dave Reichert, fake environmentalist
Over
the last few years, the fine people over at The Seattle Times have
scarcely missed an opportunity to try to con Washingtonians (and
especially residents of the Eastside) into believing that Republican
Dave Reichert is an independent minded guy who thinks for himself and
doesn't take marching orders from party bosses.

As
readers of The Advocate know, Dave Reichert has a habit of being a lot
more honest. At least, when he thinks he's in front of a friendly
audience. Nearly four years ago, when Republicans were still in power,
Reichert spoke to the Mainstream Republicans at their Cascade
Conference, and recounted what he had told a conservative voter who was
thinking of voting for the Libertarian candidate:

I
wanted to… I wanted to explain to this person how things work a little
bit back in Washington D.C. and why certain votes have to be taken.

Sometimes
the leadership comes to me and says, Dave, we want you to vote a
certain way. Now, they know I can do that over here, that I have to do
that over here. In other districts, that's not a problem, but here I
have to be able to be very flexible in where I place my votes.
Yes, very flexible.

And
so, when the leadership comes to me and says Dave, we need you to take a
vote over here because we want to protect you and keep this majority,
I... I do it.
You see, it's all about strategy.

I
know that the leadership is already planning to protect me… right?
They’re going to develop a bill that increases money for education that I
can vote on later, and I can come back and say, "I do support
teachers." Now, that’s kind of… I mean, that’s the everyday strategic
kind of battle that you… that you play out, that plays out, back in
Washington, D.C.
I know the leadership is already planning to protect me... wow, that sure sounds like a guy who thinks for himself!

As
funny as it was at the time to discover that Reichert didn't know
better than not to say such things, it's even more amusing to see that
he hasn't learned his lesson. At a recent Republican gathering, Reichert
tried to go "off the record" in a roomful of precinct committee
officers to explain why he publicly purports to be in favor of
environmental protection. Unbeknownst to him, somebody in the room was
recording him using a smartphone audio microphone, and that somebody
turned over the audio to David Goldstein, who didn't hesitate to
transcribe the best parts.

In the clip, Reichert begins his off-the-record chat by asking:

Now,
first of all, are there any reporters in the room? Does anybody
recognize… are there any people in here that you recognize as strangers?
So we know that all of us in here are family, right?
Evidently not.

Uh,
I just wanted to be honest with you. You know Jennifer Dunn was an
environmentalist, uh, in her votes, too. Uh, she was also pro-choice. I
don’t know if most of you remember that now. But, but, if you want to
hold on to this district, there are certain, there are certain things
that you must, uh, do. This is a 50/50 district.
There are certain
things you must do… like pretend to be an environmentalist. With the
blessing of Republican Party leadership, who don't want to lose a key
suburban district, one of the few blue districts to still be represented
by an R.

I only have two to three percent to play
with, every two years, and I have to raise three to four million dollars
to stay in, to do it. I am a 90/10. 90 to 10, if you look at my votes.
All the TARP votes are no, all the stimulus package votes are no, the
health care I’ve been no all three times.
In four sentences,
Reichert has managed to thoroughly vindicate every critical analysis
we've offered of his voting record during the past five years.

The
Sheriff goes on to explain that the whole point of embracing wilderness
conservation is to neutralize Washington's environmental movement.

Wild
Sky was a done deal. It was already in its process. It had been worked
on for eight years before I even came to Congress. Jennifer Dunn
endorsed Wild Sky, and I followed in her footsteps per her advice.

[...]
So, uh, you know, it, it, it, was it was a good vote. It was a good
move on my part to do that. … Because I’ve only, I’ve, supported Wild
Sky, I’ve supported Alpine Lakes, because of the reasons that I just
laid out to you. They are… what I’ve done is taken out I’ve taken them
out of the game in this district. They’re out.
And by they,
Reichert was no doubt thinking of the Washington Conservation Voters
board members who recently co-hosted a fundraiser for his reelection
campaign. Reichert's got them on his side, even though the League of
Conservation Voters (the national equivalent of WCV) gave Reichert a D
on its most recent report card. Last time I checked, a D was a failing
grade.

But for some reason, a few influential
environmental leaders have convinced themselves that they and their
organizations can't appear to be aligned exclusively with one party, so
they've chosen to embrace what they consider to be the best of the
Republican incumbents. They're allowing themselves to be played.

If
Republicans are correct, this is going to be a very tough year for
Democratic incumbents. If we're correct, it's going to be tough going
for incumbents from both parties (though not in all cases).

Considering
that Republicans are in the minority and have fewer incumbents to
defend, the environmental community would do well to invest as heavily
as it can in Democratic challengers who have the best chance of taking
out Republican incumbents, so that Republicans are forced to play more
defense and can't go on offense as much. It's good strategy. Let's face
it: nothing about the Republican Party is remotely progressive anymore.
Republicans have to answer to their rabid right wing base. That's what
Dave Reichert was doing when he was caught on tape.

If Republicans take back control of Congress, the environment will be threatened even more than it already is.

Why
should Washington Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club's Cascade
Chapter, or any other local environmental organization settle for Dave
Reichert when they can have Suzan DelBene? DelBene happens to actually
believe in environmental protection because protection is part of her
moral system. She's authentic.

Dave Reichert is not
authentic. Dave Reichert — the politician — is a fake. He's not who he
appears to be. He doesn't think for himself. He's admitted when cameras
were rolling that he does what he's told; that's what he's best at. He
is fortunate to have a great staff and a newspaper publisher working on
his behalf to make sure his unintentional honesty doesn't do him any
damage.

If Reichert were an independent thinker, his
record and his own behind closed doors conversation with party faithful
wouldn't contradict what he told a room full of Washingtonians in town
for Barack Obama's inauguration in January 2009: that he was "on board"
with the President's new direction for the country.

I
was one of the people in that room, and though I attempted to give
Reichert the benefit of the doubt when I wrote up what he said (I was in
a very forgiving mood at the time) I didn't seriously expect that
Reichert would back up his words with action. It didn't take long for my
suspicion to be confirmed.

Since Dave Reichert is only
honest in front of Republicans, it'll probably be up to Suzan DelBene's
campaign to enlighten the rest of his constituents that Reichert votes
in lockstep with Republican leadership ninety percent of the time... by
his own reckoning! … and that his efforts to protect the Alpine Lakes
and Pratt River Valley are just a facade to keep environmental groups
"out of the game".